Only two featured characters in the large ensemble Transformers cast are women, and none of the Transformers (alien robots, for the uninitiated) are female. And the two female humans consist of an unmitigated sexual object and a caricatured mockery of female leadership.

Let’s start with “the object,” Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), the one-dimensional, highly sexualized damsel-in-distress girlfriend of protagonist Sam Wikwiki (Shia LaBouef). Carly wears stiletto heels, even when running from murderous machines (except when the filmmakers slip up and her flats are visible), and she is pristine in her white jacket after an hour-long battle that leaves the men filthy.

The movie opens with a tight shot of Carly’s nearly bare ass as she walks up the stairs:

In a later scene, Carly is reduced to an object as her boss (Patrick Demsey) compares her to an automobile in a conversation with Sam:

And in case the audience doesn’t know to leer at Carly, they get constant instruction from a duo of small robots that look up her skirt and Sam’s boss (John Malkovich) who cocks his head to stare at her ass:

Sam’s “friend,” Agent Simmons (John Turturro), also ogles Carly and suggests she be frisked against her will:

Normalization of female objectification causes girls/women to think of themselves as objects, which has been linked to higher rates of depression and eating disorders, compromised cognitive and sexual function, decreased self-esteem, and decreased personal and political efficacy. Ubiquitous female sexual objectification also harms men by increasing men’s body consciousness, and causes both men and women to be less concerned about pain experienced by sex objects.

Transformers 3 is pitched as a “family movie” and the film studio carefully disguises it as such with misleading movie trailers showing a story about kid’s toys. (Okay, I still have an Optimus Prime robot…) Young kids were abundant at both screenings I attended, taking in the images with little ability to filter the message.

************

It would have been easy for Michael Bay to positively present the second female character, Director of National Intelligence Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand). Instead, she is a tool to openly mock female leadership and promote female competition.

McDormand does her best to breathe some realism into Director Mearing, but the script calls for a caricature with “masculine” leadership traits – arrogance, assertiveness, stubborness, etc. – who is ultimately “put in her place” at the end of the movie with a forced kiss. Women continue to be vastly under-represented in positions of corporate and political leadership, partially due to the double-bind of women’s leadership where, in order to be considered acceptable leaders, women have to project a “masculine” image for which they are then criticized.

Director Mearing’s authority is challenged by virtually everyone she encounters in a way that simply wouldn’t make sense for a male character in her position. Sam openly challenges her in this scene:

Director Mearing is even challenged by a transformer. [SPOILER ALERT: Director Mearing is the only one to challenge this transformer’s intentions, and she gets no credit when it turns out she was right.]

This Transformer again puts her in her place with the dual meaning of “I am a prime. I do not take orders from you”:

Director Mearing also has a running theme of not wanting to be called “ma’am.”

The “ma’am” theme doesn’t readily make sense since Director Mearing isn’t young and doesn’t appear to be trying to look young. But it does make sense when viewed through the lens of director Michael Bay intentionally mocking women’s leadership. Remember the flap when Senator Barbara Boxer at a hearing requested that a general use her professional title instead of “ma’am”?:

The “ma’am” theme resurfaces in a particularly troubling scene where Director Mearing meets with Sam and Carly, who, in good double-bind fashion, challenges whether she is even a woman:

Bay does include a few minor female characters with lines – Sam’s mother, the nagging mother/wife; Director Mearing’s subservient Asian assistant; a scene with both the “Olga” and “Petra” Russian woman stereotypes; and a Latina with a bare midriff who has a “Latin meltdown”:

If Michael Bay can buy off the most accomplished actors and even musician/social activist Bono to participate in such harmful media, what hope is there in the war that pits girls/women (the Autobots) against unrepentantly sexist movies makers (the Deceptacons)?

Comments 64

Pam — July 5, 2011

wow, didn't see that coming! I'm surprised he left out mammy and sapphire. I won't be spending my money on this.

Jennifer Jennings — July 5, 2011

This was an excellent review!! Thank God I didn't waste 10 on this turkey. Besides RottenTomatos.com only gave it a 38%!!!

Mickey Clark — July 5, 2011

Good points, although you lost me for a second when you said that none of the transformers are female, which seems a silly point to make about alien genderless robots. Of course, quickly googling proves me (and you) wrong, because apparently the Ducati motorcycle transformers in the film are female.

It hadn't occurred to me that the "ma'am" bits throughout the film were kind of aimed at Senator Boxer, or rather the sentiment behind it which feels that a a civilian female should not be permitted to demand professional deference from a male military commander. That's more disturbing to me than the sexual objectification parts of the film, which are bog standard, really.

Anonymous — July 5, 2011

The booty comment makes me sick. Not only does it prove that the people behind this pile of cat vomit don't even try to consider a woman as sentient being, they actually encoirage sexual harassment. I really wish that this kind of crap wasn't allowed on the big screen

C. D. Leavitt — July 5, 2011

The sexism was apparent to the star of the franchise as well, interestingly enough. Shia LaBouef has been heavily criticized for having the gall to call out Michael Bay on his sexism.

Rosemary CG — July 5, 2011

Yikes, when even your own stars call you on on this stuff you know there's a problem. This also puts the fact that they fired Megan Fox in an even more interesting light.

Anonymous — July 5, 2011

Thanks for this. I was toying around with just going to see it for the robots (not like there's anything else to expect - and I am sci-fi fan, as hard as that is as sci-fi/action movie-loving female these days), but I'm going to be skipping it totally now, as I'll likely spend the whole movie being pissed off. Women are being marginalized in Hollywood more than ever, and I, for one, am going to stop giving them my money.

WG — July 5, 2011

How can a robot be female or male?

Laughing Rat — July 5, 2011

Holy crap, this is astonishingly awful. And yet, at the same time that crap like this is in our mass entertainment media (with the psychological and social results you referred to early in the post), high-profile writers are whining that first-world feminists have nothing to complain about, because we don't experience violence, objectification, or violation. The cognitive dissonance and willful ignorance of some folks is tremendous.

Alii Silverwing — July 5, 2011

Watching this movie it was /beyond/ irritating to see Bay basically stereotype Mearing as 'The Bitch In Charge' and subsequently consistently and constantly undermine her authority in every scene.

It's frustrating and disappointing because I have a soft spot for Transformers, but there's just no way to make any of the human-actor parts of the show at all palatable.

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Aoirthoir An Broc — July 5, 2011

In other news, actual box office sales are wildly higher for movies with male directors and male leads.

When asked about this phenomenon despite all hopes to the contrary, Ruth L. McNolten President of the Men Make Better Movies Association explained:"Movies with males in the lead make more money at the box office because no one gives a rip about a movie with a female lead. I mean what's a female lead going to do when giant robot comes crashing into her bathroom? Cry? No one wants to pay for that crap."

Amar — July 5, 2011

Specific to the women in leadership commentary- On the other hand, the script brings real world examples of the types of challenges women in leadership roles face to the movie screen. The movie is not presenting a how-to guide, in my opinion, for men to interact with women. It just sheds light, publicly, on what women face and must learn to deal with when it arises. The mechanics of having authority challenged, not getting credit where due, have qualities associated with the other sex, are often different for men and women, though both men and women leaders experience it in their careers. So bringing to light the mechanics of topic isn't all that bad, in my opinion. After all, it makes it more difficult to deny that the challenges are happening in the first place, if it is present in a popular film.

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Mira — July 6, 2011

I'm a little baffled here. As far as I can tell, in the USA it's a felony to film in a movie theater. My googling has uncovered no loopholes for this. (I'm not saying there aren't any. But honestly, how is the average person supposed to know whether you're filming to pirate a movie or for a blog post?)

Can anyone tell me how these clips are legal? o_O

As for the overall message of Transformers 3, well... My 15 year old nephew went to see it on opening night. When I asked him what he thought of it, he said, "We got to see her (Carly) naked butt a lot!"

That was the only thing he got from the movie. Come to think of it, he didn't talk about the Autobots/Decepticons at all! Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. *Sigh*

Rhead — July 6, 2011

I never liked the aesthetic of the movies, or the baby-sci-fi script, besides just the sexification. Anyway, I joined this:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-HATE-MICHAEL-BAYS-TRANSFORMERS/102470420422?sk=wall
Rant away if you hate it enough.

Miss Disco — July 6, 2011

I hope I never meet the men who laugh during those clips.

Anonymous — July 6, 2011

I have not seen this one, but I did see the first two (enjoyed the first, thought the second would be similar but....no) and while watching the second, I noticed something disturbing. In the theater, there were a lot of boys who seemed to be about 11 or 12 years old, mostly there with their parents (that's not the disturbing part, boys young enough to play with robots is a big peripheral demographic for a movie about toys). Their favorite scenes were not the fighting and explosions, but the college scenes. College was presented as a magical fairyland where awkward, nerdy, average looking boys are outnumbered 10 to 1 by big-breasted, shiny haired, imbeccably made-up 18 year old lingerie models who will rip off their panties at the slightest provocation (and weed brownies flow freely). These scenes were laughable to me and my companion, because it was clear who the movie was for (awkward, nerdy college-aged guys who grew up playing with transformers and aren't having any sex). This became less funny as the 11 year old wave of boys started screaming "I CAN'T WAIT FOR COLLEGE!" The target demographic of these movies is old enough to be grounded in the reality that, sexist and ridiculous as it is, it's fantasy and wish fufillment. But make a movie about a toy, you could slap any rating you want on it, and parents will still take their kids to see it, and they're getting a message they're too young to comprehend, and taking it with them as they grow. Some of them will learn better, but looking at some of my classmates, plenty won't.

PiquantMolly — July 6, 2011

I can't help but think of Tina Fey's comment to an anonymous internet critic in Bossypants: "Women in this country have been overcelebrated for too long. Just last
night there was a story on my local news about a "missing girl", and
they must have dedicated seven or eight minutes to "where she was last
seen" and "how she might have been abducted by a close family friend",
and I thought, "What is this, the News for Chicks?" Then there was some
story about Hillary Clinton flying to some country because she's
secretary of state. Why do we keep talking about these dumdums? We are a
society that constantly celebrates no one but women and it must stop! I
want to hear what the men of the world have been up to. What fun new
guns have they invented? What are they raping these days? What's Michael
Bay's next film going to be?"

Anna — July 6, 2011

This sucks. I was really hoping to see this movie cause I'm a huge Transformers fan, but now no way. I'm not wasting my money on this crap.

5nss — July 6, 2011

I think the worst part for me is that people (the audience in the background) were laughing at the crass, pedestrian "jokes," as if lending validity to the sexist remarks.

Kath McD — July 7, 2011

Of the three movies, I've only seen the second one. It really bugged me that GIANT ROBOTS were treated as more human characters than any of the women I saw in the film. It doesn't look like that's changed with the third movie.

Eddie Duffy — July 7, 2011

I've never seen any of these films, and this post has only affirmed that I made the right decision.

Also, re that third clip: no-one in England has used the word "smashing" in that way since about 1968.

natef — July 7, 2011

Honestly, I don't see how Bay's portrayal of McDormand's character is much different from his portrayal of Turturro's. He seems to liking mocking authority in general in these films.

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TransformersGeek — July 8, 2011

I think it's funny how Director Mearing is treated the exact same way by the Autobots and Sam in this movie as the previous FBI director who decides to intervene with the NEST operation. However since the character has become female, this must be sexism. No, both director's are treated as arrogant and criticized, but nobody stuck up for the 2nd movie lamo. Actually Mearing changes to become accepting of Sam and the Autobots, if anything it portrays women positively compared to the male counterpart. Also in the 2nd movie there are three female transformers, which are all killed in the ending of the movie. And don't say they were killed off because they were female, sideswipe is the only new autobot who survives that movie. And would our president take orders from a state governor? I don't think so. Optimus Prime rightfully puts Mearing back in her place. He ranks far above her in the chain of command. AND lastly Agent Simmons was involved with Mearing and is obviously interested in getting back together with her, hence the 'forced' kiss, which she obviously enjoyed. Chill out with your feminism. Yes, Carly is portrayed as an object in the movie and that should upset you, but seriously. You need to chill about all this sexist rage.

Lucy Luper — July 8, 2011

The car was made to look like "the IDEAL woman" - cool, thanks for reinforcing the notion that my body does not resemble this! At least I know my place...

mitanni — July 9, 2011

While I would not dream of defending Michael Bay's notorious depiction of women, I do believe you're overanalyzing a bit. I'm not sure how sexist behavior on the part of villains and comic relief characters (attempted comic relief, at any rate) factors into effecting women's self-esteem. The despicable behavior of these characters helps to reinforce that these are not the ones you should be rooting for or looking up to. I could be wrong on that one so feel free to call me out, but I think bad guys are allowed to say and do offensive things.

As for Mearing, remember that in the second movie the director was so despised by everyone on the team that he was ultimately thrown out of an airplane by the good guys. And Sentinel's "I do not take orders from you." is so obviously not a man putting a woman in her place so much as it is a giant robotic king telling a tiny fleshling to show a little respect.

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ReasonRules — July 10, 2011

What else would you expect from a summer blockbuster with a target audience that consists of teenage boys with raging hormones? Is this really that much of a surprise? I'm a teenage guy myself, but I was pretty disturbed that right from the get go, it featured a woman's ass. Overall, the movie did what it did. Explosions, action, and unnecessary sex appeal.

Grovel — July 25, 2011

Wow some people look so much into such minor facets of the film. The fact this is passed off as a review of the movie is a joke, it's more feminist rant than review.

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